Sunday, July 25, 2010

Nugget From The Net: Batman: City Of Scars

A 30 minute Batman fan film titled City of Scars has recently debuted on DailyMotion. (Watch below.) It's a quality piece that, on a scant $27,000 budget, was able to capture a grim and gritty atmosphere similar to the one we saw represented in Christopher Nolan's Batman films...and did it almost as well. (At about $185 million cheaper.) The Joker's latest escape from Arkham Asylum has Batman out there once again tracking down the Clown Prince of Crime, cleaning up the death and carnage left in his wake. However, this film chronicles the inner-struggle of Batman's quest and a feeling of futility in his crusade. This film is definitely worth checking out!

The short was shot over the course of 21 days and produced by Bat in the Sun Productions, which was founded by Aaron Schoenke and Sean Schoenke. Besides the 2003 Batman fan film, Batman: Dark Justice and 2006's Batman Legends, their work can be seen on Spike TV's "who would win?" type show, The Deadliest Warrior. (Did you catch the "Pirate vs. Knight" episode? The Pirate has guns, the Knight doesn't. -- Am I missing something?!)

When I first saw that this was another Batman fan film, my immediate question was "why?" Considering that we're currently in the middle of the run of a great series of official Batman films, this seemingly contradicts the mission of fan films of bringing to life what we don't have yet. That feeling, however, didn't last long once I started to watch it. While there are moments where the dialogue tries too hard to be poignant and some of the acting performances leave a bit to be desired, the film overall is a psychological masterpiece. The look of the film is absolutely stunning and at the end, it is an insightful look into Batman's soul.

It should also be noted that the Schoenkes' Batman work predates the Nolan films, a testament to the fact that this is their own vision of seedy Gotham, not his. These guys definitely deserve props. Tags: Comics, Movies, Nuggets From The Nets Share:http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/705774/Nugget-From-The-Net-Batman-City-Of-Scars.htmlhttp://files.g4tv.com/ImageDb3/243539_S/Nugget-From-The-Net-Batman-City-Of-Scars--Awesome.jpgBlogThread_705774 Comments Oldest FirstOldest FirstNewest First Displaying 1–7 of 7 BrownFangThump

Uh.This student-esque flick is nowhere near as cool as Nolan's work. Kudos for producing it on the cheap. Dodos for allowing it to look like it was done on the cheap. I gave up after the first 5 minutes.